It felt like an eternity, even though it was only a second. Sophie fell through the air in a blur. She felt Aiden's strong hands around her waist, and her falling slowed down. She didn't stop all the way. Aiden's footing must not have been as reliable as he thought. He was slipping off the branch he was standing on. Sophie opened her eyes and angled her feet to straddle the branch Aiden had been on moments before. She landed heavily, letting out an involuntary "Oof!" as her butt was smashed against the branch. She clutched Aiden's hands in hers; they were slipping off her body. Aiden was going to fall to the ground if she didn't do something about it.
Sophie looked down at Aiden, his expression one of pure terror. "Aiden, I'll get you up here," she said, crossing her legs to steady herself against the tree as she leaned down. She tried to pull Aiden up to the branch, but he was too heavy for her alone.
Things looked pretty dim for a moment, Aiden hanging by Sophie's weak grasp. Then Katie to the rescue as she took one of Aiden's hands and heaved him up high enough so that he could hold on to the branch by himself. Katie and Sophie scrambled out of the way and up to the branch from which Katie came. Aiden did a pull-up and swung his legs onto the branch. He too climbed up to the branch to wait until the unwanted visitors left.
Sophie's butt was still smarting after the stunt with the tree branch, but her gladness that Aiden was alright lessened the pain. She was grateful for Katie for saving them both from being found out. Sophie could see the dogs below through the thick layers of leaves sniffing around the base of the trunk. She glanced at Aiden, who was examining his left arm. She saw a huge scratch on his forearm, and grimaced sympathetically. Aiden noticed her gesture and tried to shrug it off as nothing.
The three sat in silence until the intruders left. Then they made their way cautiously down to terra firma, on the look out in case the dogs and their owners returned. "Jeez, the stunts you two pulled today!" Katie scolded. "Aiden, I thought you were adept at climbing trees. And Sophie, didn't you see the way I climbed up to that branch? You were on the wrong side of the tree trunk."
Sophie and Aiden endured these remarks in a bitter silence. Sophie was still shaken about the whole fiasco, as she supposed Aiden to be as well. Aiden was the first to reach the ground, jumping from about seven feet up. Like a gentleman, he offered Sophie and Katie his hand to help them with the jump. Sophie blushed at his formality. She corrected herself, No, he's only being nice. I'm not imagining things. He's not old-fashioned. Anything but. Sophie was apprehensive about the cut on his arm, but he made no move to acknowledge that it caused him pain.
Once they were all back on the ground, Aiden immediately walked top the bush and extracted their belongings. He laid the blanket out and sat down on it. Katie caught him looking at his arm and approached him. "Aiden, are you okay? That's quite a gash you've got there. Let me see it." She sat down next to him and took his arm in her hands to inspect it closely. "It's going to get infected unless we clean it," she commented.
Aiden pulled his arm away from Katie, "What do you know about wounds?"
Sophie sat down on the other side of Aiden, "Her dad's a paramedic. He taught her a lot about first aid."
Aiden grudgingly held his arm out for Katie. "Sophie, get the first aid bag out of your backpack," Katie instructed. Sophie obliged, pulling out the contents of the bag. "Hand me a bandage." Sophie did so. Katie took it and pressed it to the slash on Aiden's arm, lifting his arm to his head level. "Hold this on your arm, it should stop the bleeding," Katie said. Once she had assured herself that he was doing it right, she leaned back. Then she noticed, "Oh Aiden, your shirt's stained. The blood must have dripped up (A/N: Yes I do mean up; think about it, it dripped towards his shoulder, which is up)your arm when you were hanging by the tree branch."
Aiden turned his head to look, "How can you tell? My shirt's red too."
"It's darker right there, plus there's blood all over your arm," Katie responded, dabbing a wet cloth on his arm to wipe the drying blood away. When she was finished, she said, "Now let's see if your cut stopped bleeding. Then we can clean it and put a bandage on it."
Aiden obediently removed the now blood-stained bandage and let Katie inspect his arm. Sophie leaned away, the sight of blood making her feel queasy and weak. Seeing as the bleeding had stopped, Katie grabbed a bottle of liquid and a cotton ball. "This is going to sting a lot, but it's not as bad as it could be," she warned Aiden as she put some of the clear liquid on the cotton ball.
Aiden watched warily, trying to feign impartiality. Sophie could see the nervous tinge about his features. She wished she could comfort him. Aiden grimaced as the antiseptic from the cotton ball came into contact with his wound. "Stop it, it stings," he said, pulling his arm away.
Katie tightened her grip on his arm, trying to keep him in place, "Aiden, please. Otherwise it's going to get all infected."
Aiden yelled and stood up, anger burning in his eyes. "I can take care of myself!" he retorted, storming off to the oak tree. He climbed to a branch sufficiently high enough to make his point before stopping. He swore loudly as Sophie saw a red drop splat on the dry leaves below him.
Katie sighed and got up to attempt to get Aiden back down. "Aiden, look what you've done. You've started bleeding again. Believe me, the stinging of the antibiotic is nothing compared to the pain you'll go through if it gets infected," she said, staring up at him. "Come on, Aiden."
"How do you know?" Aiden asked sulkily.
"I've got a huge scar that got infected once. It wasn't pretty. There was pus and blood and all sorts of nasty things coming out of it." Katie answered.
"Fine…" Aiden gave in, a resigned look on his face as he jumped down to the ground. "Let's get it over with."
Katie led him back to where Sophie was sitting on the picnic blanket and began the whole process over again. When they got to the antibiotic part, Aiden bit his lip, but endured the pain. Sophie gradually got bored with watching, so she pulled a novel out of her backpack, leaned against Aiden, and read.